Skateboards

[alex cianci]

I ordered blank decks, and bought spray paint. I've been talking about designing decks for a while, but I just never did it. This is because, well, I never do the things I say I will. Anyway. I want to create a stencil out of contact paper, but I'm thinking the spray paint will go right through it. Basically, I have no idea. Any advice. Please. Thanks.

[tensai]

spray lightly, very lightly, and built up that way.
you can also stencil with acrylic paint and a brush of course. less chance of leaking going under the stencil.

experiment a bit first to get the feel for it.
have fun man.

[SLIMEface]

Paper is good if you don't use to much paint and only want to use it once or twice.Acetate is good because it.s durable and you can get detailed cuts without the material tearing. If your using spray paint then try and use an adhesive to make sure you don't get to much under spray but not one so strong your left with little bits from where you cant pull the paper off:P. But yeah just play around a little and see what works best for you.:)

[deliciouspeter]

this may not be what you had in mind, but I use masking tape and razor cut my design, peel away and spray/brush paint. This is of course a one use stencil, so you'd have to charge a bit more! The good is that you are not limited by stencil design (having everything attached) but of course it is a lot more labor intensive. Think of this as a poor man's silkscreen. And you can do multiple layers.

The only other thing I can think of is to have a custom stencil made out of a flexible material. Or a silkscreen made for decks.

[punkbound]

Ive tried everything from canvas to acetate for stencils and found that good old cereal box carboard to be the most cost effective and easy to cut out of anything, it tends to last a while, it will crack eventually but you can cut it as easily as paper and you should get a heap of uses out of it. A lot of mine ended up stuck to the inside of bags and jackets and were still recoverable. I found acetate not absorbing the paint too messy and it often has a grain thats hard to cut against, the only disadvantage is you cant see through the card as opposed to acetate, but if you can set up registration points its usually ok (sometimes the offset prints are the best)